We’ve had an exciting year across the Collaboration portfolio, particularly as it relates to our endpoint products. Just one proof point: We shipped our 1 millionth 7800 Series IP phone last month, less than one year since its launch. A million units is not just a major milestone, but it’s the fastest ramp-up we have ever experienced for a new IP phone. And we’ve been shipping IP phones for more than 15 years.

But what’s even more exciting to me is how our technology is helping people. As adoption of voice and video collaboration technology continues, we’re evolving our portfolio to provide the flexibility and choice they need. Read More »

When a particularly transformational technology comes along, Cisco IT sets out to be Cisco’s first and best customer. We use it, adopt it, and prove it adds value to the business. By doing this, we’re not only able to show customers the value of our product, but we’re also able to find new-technology issues before a customer might, and give Cisco time to build a better platform. Read More »

Trends like pervasive video and cloud computing are inherently changing the way we collaborate. Increasingly, organizations are looking for ways to enable rich interactions amongst employees, partners and customers.

To address this need, Cisco recently announced the Cisco Desktop Collaborate Experience DX650, an Android based phone that delivers traditional voice functionality, high-definition 1080p video, and many features commonly associated with today’s smartphones straight to the desktop. This new next-generation Cisco IP phone extends the possibilities of desktop collaboration and delivers a reliable and high-quality audio and visual experience.

Snorre Kjesbu, vice president of Cisco Collaboration Endpoints Technology, recently took time out at Enterprise Connect to discuss the DX650. Read his post to hear more on Cisco’s newest endpoint, including what Snorre’s favorite feature is! A New Paradigm for Desktop Collaboration.

Cisco has recently received questions about a vulnerability in some of our 7900 series IP office phones that is said to allow eavesdropping on nearby office conversations. This was discovered by IT security researchers at Columbia University, and we thank them for reporting it to us before presenting at various security conferences.

We are actively working on a permanent fix, and have released very detailed, step-by-step guides for customers on identifying and preventing the vulnerability from being used. We’re not aware of it being used against any of our customers – largely due the fact that it is very challenging to exploit.

Unlike other IT security issues that have received attention, this is not simply a matter of someone “hacking” into the software on one phone. As the Columbia research demonstrated, someone wishing to take advantage of the vulnerability faces several distinct challenges. They would need hardware and software skills specifically related to software at the core of IP phones, an IT network configured a very specific way, and physical access to the phone’s serial port to insert a tailor-made device pre-loaded with software.

That does not mean we take this vulnerability lightly. We first issued information to our customers at the end of last year and have recently released very detailed documents to help those responsible for protecting IP phone networks. You can see these documents here: Security Advisory and Applied Mitigation Document.

As well as offering customers the information needed to secure their phone network against this vulnerability, Cisco will issue a software update on January 21st that closes off access to the vulnerability.

UPDATE – this interim software update was released to customers ahead of schedule on January 17th.

We remain committed to making sure Cisco products maintain the highest levels of security. When we learn of vulnerabilities we will address them quickly and communicate transparently with our customers.

As the market leader in Unified Communications, Cisco has a broad customer base, with organizations from the Fortune 500 to small local businesses using our UC portfolio of infrastructure and endpoints. Since we have over 120,000 customers and over 50 Million users across the globe, we wanted to find out more about who these users were and how they use Cisco IP phones on a daily basis. Last week, we launched a Facebook contest asking our Cisco Collaboration fans to submit photos of all the interesting locations where they use their Cisco IP phone, and to tell us how they use them and what benefits they were seeing from their phone.

I’m excited to report that the responses have been fantastic! Cisco users have been enthusiastic with their stories, sharing how Cisco IP Phones complement their workspace, and offer their organization a highly reliable and proven technology that is still very much at the center of facilitating enterprise communication and collaboration. The always-on familiarity of the dial tone, the secure access to directory features and the high quality of the voice and increasingly video interactions are all contributing to these devices being used on a daily basis. Users span all industries and include teleworkers, nurses in a hospital, call center agents and retail store managers, and office workers from different industries, each of whom rely on a high performing, stable solution for their critical communication needs.

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